blue artichoke

Q: Do you know what’s going on this weekend?
A: Taste of Chicago.

Q: Do you know where I am right now?
A: Chicago.

Gentleman Caller and I are here to celebrate making it through one year of wedded bliss, fortuitously at the same time as Taste of Chicago. It has been described to me with adjectives such as “full” and “wasted,” and also as an event full of fat Chicagoans waving big greasy turkey legs. (Clarification: Taste of Chicago was described as such, not the first year of marriage.)

We went out to Avec for dinner tonight with some of GC’s college friends, spending two month’s worth of our food budget on a fancy dinner. Totally worth it.

Tomorrow, we’ll sleep until we wake up (it is vacation, after all), then head to Taste of Chicago for a full day of eating and boozing. I’m almost too excited to sleep.

Dinner tonight: chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce; crushed tomato and olive oil-braised octopus, baby spinach, onion salad and pancetta vinaigrette; crispy short rib with red pepper, cilantro, red onion and harissa aioli; deluxe" focaccia with taleggio cheese, truffle oil and fresh herbs; wood oven-roasted curried pork shoulder with lentils, green garlic, leeks and patty pan squash; and a black pepper pasta with sausage and slices of Parmesan